Kahumoku ‘Ohana Hawaiian Music and Lifestyle Workshop, 8th annual Nov. 3-10, 2013
It’s never fun to leave good friends, but it was lucky (for me, at least—‘not sure how very fortunate Mark thought it was) that the day we drove across Hawai’i Island from Chuck and Bonnie’s place was the final day of the 8th Annual Kahumoku ‘Ohana Hawaiian Music and Lifestyle Workshop staged by Keoki Kahumoku.
Our route took us right through Pahala in the Kau District and we didn’t have to go far off the road to find the event’s location, the Pahala Plantation House.
Hawaiian cultural instructors and professional musicians from all around offered their talents during the week-long event. The final day featured a wonderful afternoon concert—and we arrived in time to enjoy most of it.
Keoki’s passion is providing music instruction and cultural opportunities for local kids so many of the “well-known” performers shared the stage with very talented youth from throughout the area. Among the musicians I enjoyed that afternoon was James Hill (whom I’ve watched “grow up” in concerts starting in 2003! Does that make me feel old or what?) and Led Ka’apana. A real “chicken skin” moment was sitting nearby as the Rev. Dennis Kamakahi played “Wahine Ilikea”—a song he wrote and which has become a true standard in Hawaiian music. As he played and sang (and a dancer interpreted it), I simply sighed and closed my eyes in contentment.
Late in the afternoon, as I looked over the crowd, I saw one distinctive silhouette—and I looked again. Yes—it was Joyce Flaugher, an ukulele player, a hula dancer and a Hawaiian culture “evangelist” I met at the very first ukulele event I attended, the Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum Expo in Rhode Island (!) in August 2003. I’ve never seen Joyce, a Texan, without a straw hat bedecked with silk flowers and she was true to form there in Pahala. We hadn’t seen each other in years, but it turned out she’d temporarily moved to nearby Hilo and was completely immersed now in the culture she so loved.
Old friends, new songs and Hawaiian music played and danced beneath Hawaiian skies. What could be nicer?
Joyce Flaugher and I.
James Hill.
